Rebel uprising against Batista government ongoing in 1957: Tanks on the streets. Officials enter a building. Cuban President Fulgencio Batista greets dignitaries. 13 March 1957: Leader of the student movement, Jose Antonio Echeverria, organizes an attack on the Presidential Palace. Batista escapes and the student leaders are shot. The fighting spills on to the streets. Soldiers keep a vigil on the streets amidst the demonstrations and rioting. People and cars on the street. A policeman runs across a street. A man carries a wounded woman. Bullet holes. The police shoot down Jose Antonio Echeverria. A man and a woman grieve. Supplies including food, arms, ammunition and medical supplies reach the Sierra Maestra Mountains. A jeep driven on a dirt road in the jungle. A soldier drinks water. One checks another's blood pressure. A soldier patrols on a roof. 12 July 1957: Fidel Castro issues a manifesto. He talks to his soldiers and other revolutionaries. Havana: Buildings and high rises in the city. Anti-Batista opposition increases. Soldiers and officers. A man shows a bullet ridden car to an officer. Santiago De Cuba: People carry casket of underground rebel Frank Pais. A large crowd gathers to join In the procession. Women mourn his death and chant "Vengeance." A police officer and his soldiers inspect dead bodies of revolutionaries lying on the sidewalk. A framer suspected of aiding Castro's men is hanged in the jungle. Men seated in a court as a woman testifies. A woman prays at a grave.
Cuban President Fulgenci Batista greets visiting officials as they enter the Presidential Palace in Havana. Armed soldiers guard the entrance way and an antiaircraft gun is seen on the sidewalk. Street scenes of armed conflict March 13, 1957, as a group of university students storms the Presidential Palace intent on executing dictator Fulgencio Batista. People scurrying for cover as armed police engage the attackers on downtown streets. Police armored personnel carrier sits in the street. A truck full of armed police reinforcements arrives. Ambulance drives on street. A policeman carries a wounded woman. Bullet holes in windows. A person killed in the conflict. Scene shifts to a rural area where a jeep drives along a dirt road past a revolutionary sentry. Several revolutionaries from Venuezela and other Latin American countries are seen along with Cubans, in the company of Fidel Castro, who converses with them. On July 30, 1957, a funeral is held in Santiago de Cuba, for revolutionary, Frank Pais, assassinated by police. People crowd the street as his coffin is carried out of the church.They shout "venganza," (revenge). Elsewhere, police stand over the bodies of killed revolutionaries. Scenes of people meeting and grieving. Revolutionaries in the bush country of Oriente province. They ride horses. Che Guevara seen with them working with arms and explosives. Burning building and damage resulting from attacks by Batista forces. Castro with revolutionaries organizing in Oriente. Che Guevera instructing in use of arms and explosives. Revolutionaries unleashing heavy gunfire at Bastista forces. A revolutionaries hospital treating a wounded member. Open fire fights between Bastista forces and Castro revolutionaries.
The Cuban Revolution against Batista in years 1957-1958. A Cuban Revolutionary writes a note to be taken across by Fidel Castro's courier. A soldier watches as a courier gets onto a horse and rides away. Refuge area for the rebels in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. A professional Communist from Argentina, Ernesto Che Guevara, joins Fidel Castro's men. He rides a horse as he smokes a cigarette and talks to another man. Soldiers clean and prepare arms and ammunition, they make bombs. Castro's rebels bomb buses and railroad trains. Charred cars and trucks. Buildings on fire from rebel guerrilla strikes. Oil tanks and factories set on fire by them. Black smoke arises from fires as firefighters try to put out fires. Men on horses cross a stream as they bring supplies. Castro talks to new recruits and pro-communists. Celia Sanchez, who was part of the Moncada Barracks attack, talks to a rebel. Che Guevara smokes a cigar as he inspects rockets. Soldiers ready the rocket. Soldiers sit and talk, climb uphill on foot and on horses. Soldiers inside a dimly lit camp. The rebels attack and fire. A rebel doctor operates upon a soldier in a make shift operating room. The rebels attack and fight police and Cuban military forces loyal to Batista. Soldiers fire in standing and prone positions. Soldiers walk down a path in the jungle. They gather around a man seated on the ground as he takes notes. Women rebels take pictures of prisoners for publicity purposes. A rebel with a camera. 1958: Batista's men search for Castro. Soldiers walk uphill and cross a stream. A soldier in a deserted village. People near wrecked buildings and houses. A woman soldier speaks into a microphone for the rebel radio. A man adjusts the knob of a portable transistor radio.